“The Messiah Has Arrived.” Satirical postcard with a cartoon by Leyb Brodaty, depicting Yiddish writers as figures from Isaiah 11:6: “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them.” From right to left: Sholem Asch, David Frishman (snake), Alexander Mukdoyni, Hersh Dovid Nomberg, Yitskhok Leybush Peretz (lion), Hillel Zeitlin, and Shmuel Yatskan, editor of the Yiddish newspaper Haynt. Number one in a series called “The Satirical Post.” (Warsaw: Ferlag Satira, ca. 1910). (YIVO)

To survey the development of Yiddish literature in Eastern Europe from earliest times until the present, this entry comprises two articles. The first treats early (“Old Yiddish”) literature; the second treats Yiddish literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For discussion of the Yiddish language from a linguistic perspective, see the relevant articles in the entryLanguage. See also Printing and Publishing.